Update on Work

Our work, especially out doing surveys, has slowed down as we are out of names/referrals to pursue for interviewing.  We've taken this time to focus on health education:  both raising awareness regarding our surveying, as well as increasing knowledge about lung disease in the community.  There are many misconceptions about lung disease- even the terminology does not match up very well- everyone uses a different word for TB, or pneumonia, etc.  Some people "have the lung," and others say they "were touched by the cold" and thus are sick.  Our education is along these lines:  We have taught two education sessions that are hosted by the government health extension workers, and we have another one this week.  This week we are also spending time doing education within our own support groups.  (I, of course, can't help throwing in a one man drama involving lots of coughing...)

One problem is "false" referrals- we are pushing for people to give us names to survey, but many of the names we are now getting are people assuming they will gain something for other health complaints from our project.  Once we sit down to interview them they may say something like, "Well, I cough sometimes, but my ears have been pussing since I was a child" or something like that.  Sammy is screening carefully before surveying.

We are, however, now up to 15 TB patients.  They are all taking their medication well- Sammy went to the health center this morning to verify that none of them have defaulted.  They are also all improving well and we try to visit each of them every week or two.  Some of course need more visiting/support than others.

My next project is to use the GPS data we have:  I would like to map out Kebele 09, with borders, and plot where we have surveyed, where we have TB positive cases, and where we have done education sessions.  How broad have our activities been when compared with the borders of the kebeles?  Are there pockets we haven't touched yet?  This would inform how to proceed.